Bram Stoker's Nephew Takes a Turn at 'Dracula'

The granddaddy of all vamp authors, Bram Stoker, once paid Charleston a visit during a tour with the Lyceum Theatre in 1898. Stoker worked for the theatre as a business manager alongside actor-manager Henry Irving. Irving is said to have been Stoker's real-life inspiration for the character Count Dracula in his classic 1897 novel. There's still a Stoker in South Carolina (Aiken to be exact), and he has a sequel to his predecessors' classic novel -- Dracula The Un-dead.

Dacre Stoker (gotta love a family with names like this ... ) is the great-grand-nephew of Bram Stoker and describes his novel as such: "It picks up the action 25 years after Bram's story ends. We use the same characters that are surviving at the end of Bram's Dracula. But we have a twist, we bring a merged Dracula into play." Dacre has dedicated his life to educating fans of the fanged fiend about his uncle's life work and hopes people will travel on a new journey in his book. He credits part of the vamp craze to his uncle: "Bram did his homework, he didn't invent vampires. But he took all the history and mythology of vampires and put it into this one character," said Stoker.

You can pick up a copy of Dracula The Un-deadover here and let us know if Dacre succeeds where his uncle left off, or if old Bram would be turning over in his grave right about now.